Roger Holme's work in social and industrial psychology is widely respected. The theme of this first collection of his essays is the relationship of the individual with the formal, value-laden group on the one hand and the scientifically known and the philosophically asserted on the other. Roger Holmes looks at the connexions between these two important relationships and considers them in terms of the interaction between the nature of society and the nature of the knowable. The areas covered include the derivation of social classes, the nature of morale and the emergence of the professions and the trade unions. Subjects relating to the theory of knowledge include the nature of cross-cultural data, the relationship between empiricism and psychoanalysis, and Marxism and the nature of groups. The author's main theoretical influences throughout have been psychoanalysis, which is treated sympathetically but critically, and Piaget; these influences are reflected in the main preoccupations of these essays.

Roger Holme's work in social and industrial psychology is widely respected. The theme of this first collection of his essays is the relationship of the individual with the formal, value-laden group on the one hand and the scientifically known and the philosophically asserted on the other. Roger Holmes looks at the connexions between these two important relationships and considers them in terms of the interaction between the nature of society and the nature of the knowable. The areas covered include the derivation of social classes, the nature of morale and the emergence of the professions and the trade unions. Subjects relating to the theory of knowledge include the nature of cross-cultural data, the relationship between empiricism and psychoanalysis, and Marxism and the nature of groups. The author's main theoretical influences throughout have been psychoanalysis, which is treated sympathetically but critically, and Piaget; these influences are reflected in the main preoccupations of these essays.

Actor-systems dynamics is an innovative, multidisciplinary methodology for investigating and analyzing social struggles over economic resources and the related interplay between economic and socio-political institutions and processes. The authors, sociologists and economists, offer a systemic perspective on contemporary socio-economic issues such as economic crisis, unemployment, inflation, economic democracy and development; in their analyses, they identify several of the key factors that drive people to interact, to initiate change and transformation as well as to resist such change. Major underlying themes in the book are: Conflict over the distribution of economic resources and economic policies and institutions; the structural bases of economic inequality and conflict; the shaping and reshaping of socio-economic institutions, and the contradictions, conflicts and instabilities evoked by such developments; the failure of orthodox economic theories, including Keynesianism, in the face of recurrent economic crises and instabilities; the development and application of an open, dynamic actor-oriented systems theory – grounded in the social sciences – addressing complex socio-economic phenomena in ways diverging substantially from conventional economics. All in all, the papers collected here deal, on the one hand, with social power, conflict, and struggle concerning economic resources and institutions and, on the other hand, the structural and other factors which drive powering initiatives, conflict, and social innovation and transformation. The book is addressed to a broad spectrum of social and managerial scientists concerned with socio-economic issues, institutions, and development.

Are human misery, poverty and despair a result of personal inadequacy or social injustice? Therefore is the solution to these problems psychotherapy or political action? In one of the most important books on social work for a decade, Paul Halmos tries to resolve a dilemma which many social workers experience acutely – the conflict between a desire to help those in need and a fear that, by doing so, they merely support a political system which should, itself, be changed. Such a dilemma was highlighted during the sixties when 'casework' and personal counselling became discredited by the 'rediscovery' of widespread poverty and inequality in western society. To many the only solution seemed to be urgent and radical political action. For Professor Halmos the realities are more complex – an exclusive preoccupation with either personal or political solutions is unlikely to prove fruitful – what is needed is a dual sensitivity and balance. Yet for the author it is the political solution which carries within it the greater risk and he warns of the dangers inherent in the total politicization of social concerns. He argues that social action can become political action and ultimately political control.

Truly interdisciplinary work between Sociology and History is are, because one discipline usually exploits the concerns or data of the other. Eric Carlton, however, has succeeded in bringing together the distinctive orientations of sociology and ancient history into a clearly written discussion of concerns crucial to both disciplines. Based on a comparative analysis or two pre-industrial civilisations, those of Ancient Egypt and Classical Athens, the study is primarily concerned with three issues. The first is the relationship between belief and action: does belief (intellectualised as ideology) affect or determine social behaviour? Second, the author examines the ways in which belief contributes to stability and ‘good order’ in society, and asks to what extent such factors as social status and social change are related to institutionalised mechanisms of social control. Finally, he indicates possible sociological frameworks or models which are ideological rather than stratificatory, whereby complex pre-industrial systems might be analysed. By analysing the societies of Ancient Egypt and Classical Athens in institutional terms, Eric Carlton examines the potency and pervasiveness of the ideological factor and shows that it is a persistent and determinative feature of this type of society.

In this volume leading international scholars elaborate upon the central issues of the analysis of ideology: the nature of dominant ideologies. The ways in which ideologies are transmitted; their effects on dominant and subordinate social classes in different societies; the contrast between individualistic and collectivist belief systems; and the diversity of cultural forms that coexist within the capitalist form of economic organization. This book is distinctive in its empirical and comparative approach to the study of the economic and cultural basis of social order, and in the wide range of societies that it covers. Japan, Germany and the USA constitute the core of the modern global economy, and have widely differing historical roots and cultural traditions. Argentina and Australia are white settler societies on the periphery of the capitalist world-system and as a result have certain common features, that are cut across in turn by social and political developments peculiar to each. Britain after a decade of Thatcherism is an interesting test of the efficacy of an ideological project designed to change the cultural values of a population. Poland shows the limitations of the imposition of a state socialist ideology, and the cultural complexities that result.

How has reason, believed since the Enlightenment to be the ally of freedom in the search for a better, more humanly satisfying world, been reduced to a technical rationality that has actually impoverished the bases of human freedom? What might be the options and obligations for sociologists who wish to restore reason to its proper status? Working within the tradition of C. Wright Mills and Jurgen Habermas, Frank Hearn sets out to answer these questions. He surveys the treatment of the relation between reason and freedom in both the classical tradition (especially the writings of Saint-Simon, Comte, Durkheim, Marx, Weber, and Freud) and an increasingly significant segment of social thought and criticism (and, for example, in the contrasting visions of Daniel Bell and Christopher Lasch.) He then analyses both the concrete social and historical forms of expression taken by what Mills calls 'rationality without reason' and their impact on individual autonomy and the freedoms associated with democratic politics. Finally, he develops Mills's and Habermas's claims that the cultivation of democratic publics and a critical social theory committed to a vibrant public life are indispensable to the protection and revitalization of the values of reason and freedom and of the practices they entail. This book updates and enriches Mills's influential argument by demonstrating its affinity with critical theory, by showing its contributions to a critical understanding of the classical tradition, and by showing its implications for contemporary social, political, and economic developments.

The sociology of knowledge is an area of social scientific investigation with major emphasis on the relations between social life and intellectual activity. It is now an area central to most graduate and undergraduate courses in sociology. The present collection of readings explains the origins, systematic development, present state and possible future direction of the discipline. The major statements in the field were developed early in the twentieth century by Durkheim, Scheler and Mannheim, but the sociology of knowledge continues to engage the theoretical and empirical interests of contemporary sociologists who desire to penetrate the surface level of social existence. This book, with its carefully selected contributions and an introduction which relates the selections to the developmental pattern of the discipline, provides guidance and insight for the reader concerned with the topical issues raised by sociologists of knowledge.

We are all subjected to the power of the state and other entities such as the EU. But what justifies the far-reaching power of these institutions? Standard theories suggest that consent, democracy, or justification make exercising power legitimate. This book, however, argues that these approaches do not survive philosophical scrutiny. Instead, it develops a radical theory of political legitimacy according to which power is justified because of the outcomes it brings about. It does not primarily matter, then, how power is exercised; instead, we should focus on what it achieves. This is the first book-length treatment of instrumentalism. It outlines the structure and core moral commitments of the theory and considers in detail how it is best formulated. In particular, the book sketches an abstract theory of justice and argues that our primary aim in distributing political power should be to promote justice. Instrumentalism is also contrasted with the three leading theories of legitimacy, based on consent, democracy, and public justification. Not only are these competing theories unpersuasive, but it is also shown that instrumentalism can replicate some of their appeal in its own way. The book also untangles some conceptual confusions concerning political legitimacy. One mainstream view is that legitimacy requires authority, the ability to give binding commands to people. This book argues against the necessity of authority and develops an authority-less model of legitimacy, defining legitimacy as the separate and distinctly moral problem of justifying political power. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the moral foundations of justified political power, and especially to researchers in philosophy, political theory, and law.

The shock waves of conservative advances have reached into every corner of American and British politics. Parties of the right have prospered, while parties of the left have stumbled, retreated, and are now regrouping. The agenda for both right and left is set by the terms of the free-market doctrines that have displaced the post-war consensus politics of liberal capitalism. This volume describes and challenges the ideological basis of the free-market right. Though critiques of the policies of the Reagan and Thatcher governments are hardly in short supply, this major new study offers the most thorough and up-to-date analysis available. No other book considers in such depth conservative ideas and policies on both sides of the Atlantic. It provides the first clear account of the distinction between conservative and other forms of capitalism. It also examines the fault lines dividing opposing camps within conservative capitalism and their consequences for domestic policy in Britain and the US. Linking political theory and public policy, it is one of the few critical appraisals of the New Right based on a clear understanding of what the arguments for the free market really are. Finally, the authors demonstrate what the left needs to learn from its failures, how to remould its understanding of the relationship between politics and the market, and how to recapture the lost initiative.